


The Squire of Flowers

by brightened



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 14:19:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1431634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightened/pseuds/brightened
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loras Tyrell squires for, and lusts after, Renly Baratheon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Only to Ask

**Author's Note:**

> I've finished all the published books but I don't really remember much of anything. I'm rereading and GoT/CoK is freshest in my mind. I tried to make it relatively canon-compatible but there's so many rules, characters, back story etc. that I'm sure I'm actually fucking up everything!

“It’s only a cock,” Renly said, laughing.

“A cock that you’ll put away if you want to keep,” Loras said. The smile on his face suffered from the sharp edge to his eyes, eyes that he carefully kept fixed on the ground to avoid the thing Renly was so desperate to show him. The two stood in the barn, freshly returned from a ride. The horse’s bridle lay on the floor where Loras had dropped it in surprise.

“Threatening your lord? I should have your head for that.”

“Both our heads, mine from my shoulders and yours from between your legs, or neither. The choice is yours, my lord.” Renly grumbled a few more threats but stowed himself away all the same. Loras bent and picked up the bridle to give his lord some privacy – not that the cursed man appeared to want any.

“Now who am I to ask if it looks infected? If I ask the maester, the whole castle will be whispering I’ve been sleeping with whores.”

“Then maybe you’d best ask the whore you slept with.” Loras was, on the whole, unimpressed with the way his voice quivered. Renly shoved his squire roughly.

“You know I’ve done no such thing. You were there when the damned-”

“Yes, yes, I remember,” Loras said. He was not eager to relive the last time they had hunted. The two walked out of the barn together, Renly watching his squire through the corner of his eye.

“Have you gone blushing maiden on me, Loras? I’d think it was the first time you’ve seen a prick if I didn’t know any better,” Renly said. His arms swung loosely by his side and he stepped gaily up to the castle doors. Loras resented him that easiness. 

“There’s quite a difference between seeing one in a bath and having one pushed in my face.”

“I don’t know that difference,” Renly said. “Perhaps you’d best teach me.” Loras stopped and glowered at his lord. Renly paused and looked over his shoulder.

“Is that a command?” Renly did not answer Loras’s question for quite a while. The struggle was written plainly on his face. Was he going to command Loras to drop his trousers or not? Loras folded his arms stiffly and fixed Renly with as discourteous a stare he dared.

“Ask me again on the morrow,” Renly said finally and resumed walking without waiting to see if Loras followed. The Tyrell squire stood still until Renly turned a corner and disappeared. He took the exit as a dismissal and hurried up the stairs, all the better to put distance between Renly and himself.

He hadn’t always found the lord so infuriating. There was a time when he had looked upon the older man with something akin to worship. He’d spent all his days by Renly’s side and quite enjoyed himself. That was when he had only eleven years on him, when he was fresh to Storm’s End and fucking had been something he saw in the halls but did not really consider for himself. Then he’d met Lady Alysa, a maid of fourteen, and she’d taken her into her room. She said he couldn’t go inside of her, she had to be a proper lady, but she had her mouth. Only all Loras had done was blush during the few wet minutes she’d been on her knees. He’d fallen from her mouth, soft, as she peered up at him and asked if he was ill. He’d promptly pushed her away, covered himself up, and strode out of the room. Not the most gallant he’d ever been and certainly not the most knightly.

From that day on almost everything he used to enjoy merely served as an annoyance. He couldn’t stop wondering why – why he hadn’t enjoyed Lady Alysa, why he had felt only humiliation, why _Renly_ laid with woman after woman and never had a problem. He tried to excuse it for his age, he had only been almost thirteen after all. Then one day he returned from a ride and found two servant children, at least a year younger than he, fondling each other clumsily. At that moment he could have whipped them he was so furious but he merely yelled himself hoarse and forbade them from ever entering the barn again. He had no right to give any such command but they followed it anyway. The boy was especially meek in Loras’s presence after that but if anyone noticed they made no comment.

Almost everything had lost its pleasure but certainly not jousting. He relished the feel of a lance in his hand more than ever. It was to the quintain that he went after he took his leave of Lord Renly. He broke shields until he ached sweetly from head to toe. Servants drew him a bath and Loras fell in with a sigh. His hand wandered with vague interest to his cock. It stiffened immediately against his palm and he withdrew with a curse. 

“You couldn’t have done that with Lady Alysa?” he demanded of his prick. The one eye stared at him insolently beneath the warm water but gave no answer, save a futile throb. He scrubbed his body until his skin turned pink and dressed in simple cottons. He intended to sup alone in his room until he was called to Renly’s side. 

“You asked for me?” Loras said as he straightened from his bow.

“I did,” Renly said and thrust a newly unfurled scroll in the boy’s face. A short but commanding missive from the king. Robert wanted his brother at King’s Landing. Normally this meant a tourney but there was no mention of such in the letter. It, in fact, distinctly lacked any of Robert’s typical bragging or japes.

“You wish me to accompany you to court,” Loras said. “When are we leaving, my lord?”

“I’m leaving the day after next,” Renly said. “You’ll stay here. You’re too green for the journey.” That stung. Loras did his best to conceal his hurt but had a feeling it was writ very plainly across his face.

“As my lord commands,” Loras said with another bow. Renly continued to talk, passing out instructions to his lords-in-waiting, his servants, and his squire in equal turns. Loras was to continue training, continue attending to the horses, continue being a boy. Loras knew his cheeks were burning. He hadn’t been to King’s Landing since he was a babe in arms and he was _not_ too green, in fact it was his fourteenth name day the next day. It would have meant much to him to be able to go and to celebrate his name day at the same time.

“Walk with me to my quarters, Loras,” Renly commanded and Loras obeyed. He followed slightly behind his lord but managed silence only for as long as it took for them to leave all others behind.

“How can I protect you if I’m left behind?” he said. Renly stopped and turned to face him, looking unsurprised at the question. “My lord,” he added hastily.

“Oh, forget the courtesies,” Renly said. “We know each other better than that by now.”

“Do we?” Loras asked. “I thought you would bring me with you. That’s why I’m here, after all, to squire for you and accompany you in your travels and battles.”

“True,” Renly said, “but as to your assertion of protection – I believe I am protected well enough by my other squires, let alone the thousands of men-at-arms I have at my call.” Loras moved to protest but Renly quieted him with a hand on his shoulder. “Loras, you may not know my every move and motive, but we are still friends, no?” Renly smirked. “Why else would I have sent Lady Alysa after you?”

“ _You_ …?”

“A golden dragon she cost me, Loras, what friendship have I ever valued so much?” He grinned. “Although I’ve come to think that wasn’t the best decision after all. One lay and it’s all you can think about. Oh, don’t deny it, I’ve seen you lose interest in near everything this past year.” Loras simply stared. He had never felt less like Renly’s friend. That the man could have done everything, seen everything, and been _so wrong_ …

“As you say,” Loras said. Renly’s confidence faded as he took in Loras’s deflated demeanor.

“What’s troubling you?” Loras almost said it, truly. The words were on his lips: _I had a mouth on my cock and I didn’t care for it; I only get hard with my hand and that’s only because then I can think of you_. Then he remembered the last time they had hunted. Shame washed over him and he bowed his head.

“Tired, my lord, forgive me.” Renly dismissed him to his room and Loras felt his puzzled eyes on his back as he walked down the corridor. When he reached his room, Loras stripped and fell into his bed, into fitful sleep.

He woke on his name day feeling listless. He dressed and ate in silence and ignored those who tried to draw him into conversation. A raven had arrived with a letter of well wishes from Highgarden several days past and he was not in his own holding so there’d be no feast for him. The day broke dawn in sun but by midday the clouds were stormy and rain fell in fat drops. Loras sought shelter in the library and passed the hours reading history of battles past. He wondered if anyone would ever take the care to write down his battles or if he would fade from life without a record to remember him by.

“It’s ill luck to spend your name day here.” Loras looked up from the heavy tome on his lap and into the face of Lord Renly.

“Why now? Do I run the risk of turning into yellow parchment? Or, worse, a maester?” Renly laughed a belly laugh and settled into a cushioned seat.

“I lied,” Renly said. “I just hate to see any man in a library.” 

“I’m a man now? Yesterday I was too green.”

“Yesterday you were thirteen,” Renly said. Loras wanted to argue; he had always had a knack for persuasion. He only looked at his lord, saw the cheer written on his face, and decided not to press it. Arguing may only make him seem all the greener.

“Now I’m fourteen and a man among books.” Renly laughed again, a deeper chuckle.

“And still, truthfully, too green.” Loras scowled and shoved the history book back onto the shelf.

“ _Well-_ ”

“Quiet,” Renly said. “I brought you something.” Loras looked around stupidly. “No, not here. Come with me.” Loras dutifully followed, his heart beating just the slightest bit faster. He was admittedly curious.

Lord Renly led him into the kitchen. Loras found a small table groaning under the weight of all his favorite dishes: pickled cabbage, seared fish, fresh rolls and not the hard brown ones either. A large bowl of pudding balanced precariously on the edge.

 “And this,” Renly said and pressed a small box into Loras’s hands. The squire lifted the lid and found inside a large gold pin fashioned into a rose. “A flower for the Squire of Flowers. Fitting, no?” Renly looked so pleased. Loras felt humbled.

“Thank you, my lord,” Loras said. “For the food and the rose. I will treasure it.”

“Thank you for your loyal service,” Renly said quite seriously. “You came to me a boy and here you are near enough a man grown. I suspect I’ll knight you before your name day next.” He reached over and pinned the rose onto the front of Loras’s shirt. “That’ll do for now until you wear a cloak proper.”

“On the morrow I will,” Loras vowed. Renly gestured to the table and the two sat down to dine together. The evening passed in turns of food and ale and Loras was the drunkest he’d ever been when he finally tumbled into bed.

His head throbbed when he woke up but it was not as bad as it could have been. He dressed in dim lighting, determined to not make his pain worse and appear weak in front of his lord. He never wanted to but today seemed suddenly important. He’d been operating with his lust in mind the past year; he’d been so angry that he’d wanted to fuck Renly he had forgotten he was still a squire and Renly his lord. He wanted to send him off with a cheerful heart.

Loras met Renly in the barn to aid him in dressing the horses. He worked first on cleaning their hooves and checking their shoes. Renly sat on a hay bale engrossed in a map. Thoughts tumbled and swirled in Loras's mind, no doubt a direct result of the steady pulses in his head. He was seized by the desire to confess.

“I’m sorry,” Loras blurted. He stayed bent by Renly’s horse, head bowed, unable to look him in the eye. “I threw the snake in front of your horse.”

“What?” Renly looked entirely nonplussed.

“When we went hunting and your horse reared and you fell off and your prick snagged on the saddle and tore. It’s because I threw a snake in her path.”

“Why in the name of the seven would you do that?” Renly was suddenly and completely thunderous in his anger. Loras didn’t dare look up but he guessed if he did he would see Renly a ripe shade of red.

“You kept talking about the women you’ve bedded and…”

“You were jealous?” Renly swore. “If you wanted more women to bed, you had only to ask.”

“I was jealous,” Loras said, “of the women.” His thighs ached. He rose unsteadily from his crouch and looked Renly in the face.

“Of the women,” Renly said. He was bewildered only for the second it took for him to look back at Loras and see the truth. Loras braced for a punch or, worse, to be cast out of Renly’s service and shipped back to Highgarden. “That they had my cock? Well as to that,” Renly said, “you had only to ask.”

Renly grabbed Loras firmly and pulled him close. His lips went first to Loras’s neck where he bit deep and hard. Loras gasped and Renly pressed his thumb into Loras’s open mouth. Heat spread across Loras quickly and his head spun as he tried to process his fantasy come to life. Renly nipped at his squire’s neck once more before pressing his lips fully against Loras’s. Loras was dimly aware of Renly’s hand going to the back of his breeches, the lord’s fingers trailed down and across, shivers went up his spine, he shuddered against Renly’s mouth and then he felt the hardness against his belly. He considered pulling away but instead thrust his hand down Renly’s pants. Renly broke the kiss and laughed throatily.

“Do you know what to do with the thing?” he said against Loras’s throat.

“I’ve had practice enough,” Loras said, only a little defiant. Renly laughed again, kissed Loras, and stepped away.

“Damn you,” Renly said. “My bannermen are waiting, _Robert_ is waiting, I can’t stay and fuck you as I’d like to.”

“What difference does an hour make?” A knight entered the stable before Renly had the chance to respond. He surveyed the bareback horses and his unarmored lord with distaste.

“What have you been doing in here if not helping our lord?” he asked Loras sourly. “Go fetch his armor, I’ll dress the horses.”

“You don’t tell me what to do,” Loras said. He hoped Renly would dismiss the knight and take him right there on the smelly barn floor.

“I do,” Renly said. “Follow his order, it’s a good one.” Loras stalked away. The more distance he put between himself and the stable the more he panicked. He had all but begged for Renly to take him as a maid. He wasn’t completely a fool. He’d heard the whispers of men that laid with men and women alike. He knew he wasn’t the only one in the realm to ever feel the desire he felt. Feeling the desire and acting on it were quite apart from each other. As he carried Renly’s armor back to the yard he calmed himself with silent reminders of the future. Renly would be gone to to King’s Landing for at least a moon’s turn. Any silliness between them would be long faded.

Yet he found Renly alone with his saddled mount. Once Renly had donned his armor, he kissed Loras with wet lips. He slipped a hand down the front of Loras’s breeches and squeezed.

“Wait for me,” Renly said as he placed his helm upon his head. “I want you to be just like this when I return. Flushed and eager.” His words were muffled by the steel but no less arousing. Loras bid his lord farewell with an aching cock.

Loras did wait, in his own sense of the word. He certainly stroked himself far more often, spending his seed in his bath or in a cloth no one would miss. He had memories to fuel his lust rather than just fantasies although those too still lingered. He thought often, amidst jousts and chores and lessons, of what it would be like when Renly returned. He could perfectly imagine more kisses, a hard prick in his hand, a hand on his own. Where he struggled was the idea of letting Renly inside him. He normally skipped over that part.

So he waited but of course things were not the same when Lord Renly returned sooner than expected. The news of his bride preceded her introduction for which Loras was thankful. He masked his surprise excellently and played a courteous, if subdued, squire. Renly did not come to him that night or the next. It was on the third night that he visited Loras in his rooms, stinking of summerwine.

“You’re drunk,” Loras said as he stood in his doorway and looked at his lord. Renly laughed and pushed his way inside, flopping down on a chair and pressing a head to his head.

“I always forget how poorly I tolerate wine,” Renly said. “I feel like Robert.” Loras said nothing and Renly frowned. “Well, come here.”

“My lord, you are wed.”

“And? You won’t bear me any bastards, not unless you’ve done an excellent job hiding a cunt beneath your mail.”

“It’s not honorable, my lord,” Loras said. He had thought about it quite hard the past two days and he would not be swayed. Renly’s wife reminded him a little of Margaery – sweet and demure but something in her eyes told Loras she was no fool. He had a feeling any affair of theirs would be short-lived beneath her nose and they didn’t need servant whispers carrying across the seven kingdoms. Besides, his pride was hurt and taking a cock up his ass wasn’t going to heal it any.

“Honor,” Renly said. “It was honor that saw me married; I spent it all abiding my dear brother’s command.”

“You’ll find more,” Loras said. A silence descended on the two. Loras hardly dared to dismiss his lord so he stayed where he stood. Renly chewed his lower lip and stared at Loras through droopy eyes. Loras kept still when Renly crossed the room and kissed him roughly, hands grasping tightly at Loras’s upper arms.

“I could command it,” Renly said.

“If it please my lord,” Loras said. He was unable to keep the mocking edge out of his words.

“If it please me,” Renly echoed as he brushed past Loras and out of the room. “When has that ever mattered, Squire of Flowers?”


	2. Mummer's Farce

Loras adjusted to minimal contact with Renly fairly easily. He’d already had a month away; he’d had his entire life of only his hand for company. Attending to Renly with no joviality was only minimally painful.

Renly and his lady wife had been married for six moon turns when another letter from King Robert arrived. It read as a letter that had been copied many times and it announced the upcoming wedding of Lord Renly Baratheon and Lady Aurane. Whispers swept across the castle for days. Had Renly and Aurane not been married for many months? Loras listened to the servant gossip but never whispered back. His life had been a giant upheaval since the day Renly had grabbed his cock. One more mystery hardly disturbed him. 

The whispers stopped when the lady wife entered the kitchen without notice and heard the gossip firsthand. The serving boys involved were summarily sentenced to the dungeon. It was said (very, very quietly) that Renly was the one to get them released. 

Loras grew bored of the idle chatter but he was bored of everything else too. Only this was no longer a question of boyish turmoil. He was a man and he had outgrown being a squire. He had unhorsed every man at Storm’s End many times over. No one could make Loras yield and very few ever failed to yield to him. His archery was, admittedly, a weak point. Maybe four men at Storm’s End outdrew him and one quite easily. No one was good at everything; he was ready to be knighted but he didn’t dare ask about it.

On the eve of the departure for the supposed wedding, Lord Renly read from a scroll which squires would be staying and which would be attending him on the journey. It had been a hotly contested point of who would get to go and witness the (almost royal, if King Robert and King Stannis and their families were wiped out) wedding

Loras knew he would not go and thus he almost fell out of his chair when he heard his name from Renly’s lips. He did spill his wine across the tablecloth to the guffaws of those seated around him.

“Sure you want that one?” a lord called to Renly over the noise.

“Yes, and I’d thank you all to pay him the proper respects.” The laughter died immediately at the frostiness of Renly’s voice. He was known for being warm and most had never heard him speak such a way. Silence settled over the farewell feast. Loras mumbled an excuse and fled the hall.

He woke early and brushed his mount a touch excessively. He picked wildflowers off the grounds and braided them into the mane and tail. The horse looked utterly unamused by the new decorations. He placed a gold and green blanket on the mount’s back and was just cinching his saddle when the rest of the travelling party began to trickle out into the stable to ready their own mounts. A girl no more than three came into the stable and gazed around wide-eyed.

“This is no place for a lady,” he told her gravely and she began to giggle nervously. 

“’M no lady,” she said around the thumb lodged firmly in her mouth. Loras plucked a white flower from his mount and handed it to the girl.

“Would I give a flower to no lady?” he asked and she giggled again. A woman shouted harshly from the keep and the girl turned and ran to the source. Her bare feet kicked up behind her, black with mud.

Thus Loras began the ride happy under fresh air and in fair weather. By the third day he was drowned in rain and by the fifth he was burned from sun. He was still happy. He had spent the past nigh-three years around the same circular tower that was Storm’s End. If he showed off on his horse a little too often, if he relished in making the others laugh, if he challenged too many men to jousts (postponed until they reached King’s Landing) it was only the product of his first taste of freedom as a man.

The night before they were due to reach the court, they stopped at an inn only a short ride from a brothel. Lord Renly lay in his wife’s litter as Loras dug his heels into his horse and followed the gaggle of men over. The brothel was three stories high and lighted enough to glow from a league away.

He tied his horse and went inside. A woman sat on a man’s lap, him already inside her. Another lay across a couch completely undressed; she watched him as she ran her fingers lightly over already hardened nipples. The lady of the brothel approached him with eyes sweeping over his body. _A coin purse_ , he thought. She was searching for a coin purse. He didn’t have one; he had no money or need of it at Storm’s End. Renly met all his needs. He sent his pay directly to Highgarden. He felt foolish as he stepped into the cool night.

He climbed back on his horse and had to admit even if he had paid coin, it would have been coppers wasted. He didn’t want a woman. What he wanted he was not going to have.

Loras returned and found Renly sitting by the fire, staring moodily into the flames as he nursed a flagon of ale. Seized with a fit of boldness, he secured his mount by his tent and sat down beside the lord. “Do you mean to knight me?” he asked. Renly turned to Loras; his eyes found the gold rose keeping the green cloak around his shoulders.

“You _are_ a man grown,” Renly said. “You could unhorse Jaime Lannister, I’d bet. Maybe not today but by your sixteenth name day for certain.” Renly fell silent but just for a moment. “Now you’ve bedded your first whore, you’ve fallen asleep in your cups, you’ve ruined a feast, you’ve given flowers to a serving girl’s daughter. Truly you have become a knight.” Loras said nothing. Renly said the same. The fire burned low before it was stoked. Loras felt sleep tugging at his eyes but he was determined not to retire feeling the way he did.

“I’m sorry I have failed you,” he said. “But why did you bid me come if I am still, as you said before, so green?”

“You’re not,” Renly said. “You’re just stupid.” He drained the flagon and launched it empty across the campsite. It bounced off a squire’s back to squawks of laughter. It was then Loras realized how drunk his lord was.

“Let’s get you to your wife,” Loras said and helped Renly to his feet.

“She’s not my wife,” Renly whispered. His breath ghosted over Loras’s ear hot and wet. 

“She will be soon enough,” Loras said and Renly laughed. It was not a happy laugh, not the belly laugh Loras had heard so much on his name day.

Lady Aurane sighed when she saw the state of her (to-be?) husband. “Thank you for your help, Ser Loras,” she said kindly. 

“Just Loras,” he said with a stab of guilt. _I’ve lusted after your husband. I’ve wanted to touch, suck, and feel his cock_ , he thought. Then he remembered she actually did such things while he did not. The guilt eased and he bowed. “My lady.”

As he struggled to sleep, he considered joining the kingsguard.

The rest of the journey passed subdued but they arrived to great fanfare. People gathered around them, all craning to see the king’s brother and his new or future wife. Well, almost all. For the first time, Loras was treated to the wonders of female adoration. He waved cheerily to a group that eyed him, giggling, as he rode past. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” hissed an old man in the crowd. One eye was sewn shut and the rest of him covered in sores. Loras kept his hands on the reins for the rest of the ride in. 

The party had scarcely dismounted when Renly and his wife went to meet privately with the king. It did not take Loras long to find someone to spar, nor for more men to come when they heard of his skill. It was at once thrilling and disheartening to know King’s Landing held men no more skilled than those he’d bested at Storm’s End.

He retired from the yard with just enough time to change out of his sweaty mail and into clean leather. Loras sat at the feast, ate his fill, and marveled at the likeness between his lord and his king. They were not so alike in many ways and in many ways they were.

Loras slept well and woke refreshed. He talked to enough bannermen to discern the wedding had been set for three days forth. He took those days as an opportunity to explore the city so widely renowned. The streets were not beautiful, and the people even less so. The air stank and hung heavy, so unlike the clean salty air of Storm’s End. Overall, he liked the things he did and the people he met. Renly must have been comfortable and well-tended for he never once sent for his squire, not until the eve he was to be wed. 

Loras arrived to find his lord remarkably sober.

“I have been a fool,” Renly announced, quite dramatically.

“No more than anyone would expect, my lord.”

Renly crossed the room in great strides and laid light hands on his shoulders. “I should have told you it all,” he said. “No, I shouldn’t have agreed. I told you truly my honor is well spent. My whole life has been serving my brothers, serving the realm. For once I’d like to serve myself. Would I be so bad at that?”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Loras said.

“I’ll put it this way. I’m taking a bride tomorrow as you well know. But let’s pretend that in the morn my bride’s servants will find her cold in her bed. Maester Pycelle will remove her body for burial. Imagine her shock and confusion when she wakes, not dead after all. She may be so confused as to stow away aboard a ship headed to the Free Cities. And if a man once loved by my lady wife, now exiled, is waiting for her in Tyrosh, then all the better. Robert will have by rights gained her land all the same.” 

“And you?” Loras asked.

“Why, I’ll have grief to fend off any forthcoming betrothals. That and the rumor Varys will spread that I’m a bride killer.”

“Grief for a bride of one day?” Loras didn’t bother to hide his skepticism. It seemed the best way to hide his half-erection.

“Well, the lands were the important bit anyway,” Renly said. His smile faded as he studied Loras’s face. “I admit I thought this would please you.”

“I’m still confused,” Loras admitted. “Why bring her back a false bride?”

“Her protection,” Renly said. “The exiled man I mentioned had many friends who would not be too pleased to hear of her betrothal to another and we dared not pass them a message. Yet it would not have looked good to live with her merely a betrothed.”

“And now that they know the truth?” Loras said. Robert must have enjoyed his ale far too much to ever conceive this plan.

“I am merely a man of the flesh and I will pray the seven forgive me.” Renly slid his hands down from Loras’s shoulders, ghosted his fingers over his well-muscled chest. “I’m weary of talking, Loras. Surely your knightly honor doesn’t extend to farces.”

“I’m no knight,” Loras said and Renly’s eyes gleamed. Loras saw his own want reflected there. His hands went to the back of Renly’s head and pulled him down, the better to kiss him roughly. Loras found himself already achingly hard.

It seemed Renly found him that way too. Renly’s hand snaked down Loras’s breeches quickly, stroking as he breathed, “I’ve waited long enough. Spill your seed for me, Loras.” And, biting Renly’s shoulder, Loras did.

The next day, Loras saw Renly wedded with a red mark peeking out from his top. Maybe, Loras thought, he could see it only because he looked so hard.

The day after that, Lady Aurene passed just as Renly said. Renly strolled down to the docks in time to see a robed woman being helped onto a trading ship.

That evening, Robert invited Renly to join the small council. “He knows he can trust me, he says,” Renly told Loras as they supped in Renly’s chambers.

“True enough,” Loras said. “I suppose we will be returning to Storm’s End in your stead.”

“We?” Renly asked. “Why would I send my best knight away from me? I’m in a new city with no friends. I believe I will have to keep you _very_ close.” Loras stifled a fool’s grin and merely raised his eyebrows instead.

“Squire, you mean?”

“Ah, about that,” Renly said.

The day after began Loras’s life as the Knight of Flowers.


End file.
